


Owens Family Traditions

by A Magiluna Stormwriter (ariestess)



Category: Practical Magic (1998)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-23
Updated: 2014-12-23
Packaged: 2018-03-03 01:57:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2833964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ariestess/pseuds/A%20Magiluna%20Stormwriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Any family tradition will vary slightly with the introduction of new family members.  The Owens family traditions are not immune to this phenomenon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Owens Family Traditions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Apricot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Apricot/gifts).



> Coming soon...

_~~ December 21, 1998~~_

"Jet? Jetty, where are you?"

I groan softly and pull the covers over my head as her voice drifts up to my bedroom. How she can be so damned chipper after a night of Midnight Margaritas at her age is beyond me. Especially when I'm feeling like death would be a far better companion than the horrible pounding in my head.

"Damn it, Jet! What is this?"

Aunt Bridget's delighted laughter worms its way under the covers and into my brain until I can't hear anything else. Not even the potential of suffocating myself with the pillow I've shoved over my head will stop it from running on an endless loop in my head.

"Oh, Franny, it's all right! You know it's become a tradition to do it."

"But it's so-- _obvious_ this year. Where's the fun in that?"

And suddenly I realize what they're talking about. A soft giggle escapes my lips as I'm transported back nearly thirty years to my childhood…

*****

_December 21, 1970_  


"Jet? Jetty, what is this?"

Sitting quietly in the kitchen as I eat my breakfast of chocolate cake fresh from the oven with melty, gooey frosting, I watch as Aunt Jet leaves to find Aunt Franny. At eight years old, this transition to losing Mommy and Daddy, combined with living with the aunts, is very strange. Gilly is happily stuffing her face with cake and chocolate milk, crouched on the table like a kitten. She's so much like Aunt Jet, it's weird. And I've heard it enough times that I'm more like Aunt Franny, but far too serious like Mommy.

"What do you think they're doing, Gilly?"

She shrugs and starts to talk with her mouth full. "Dunno? Maybe they got something from one of the townspeople?"

"Maybe," I reply with a frown for her lack of manners. Mommy and Daddy would _not_ like her doing that. It's rude and I'll never be like that. "But what if it's not?"

"Sally, you're such a worrywart! It's probably nothing to do with us and, even if it was, the aunts aren't going to punish us. They've told us that over and over again." She shoves another bite of cake into her mouth and grins, bits of cake and frosting smearing across her teeth.

"Sally? Gillian?" Aunt Jet pokes her head back into the kitchen with a curious smile. "Would the two of you come out here please?"

Gilly hops off the table, cake still in hand, and heads toward Aunt Jet. Taking a sip of milk to wash down the bits of cake still clinging to teeth and tongue, I nod and follow them out of the room. We cross the dining room to enter the foyer with all of its lovely decorations. Aunt Franny is standing in front of the sideboard -- I think that's what she called it when we decorated it yesterday -- with a frown on her face. Even in the few months that Gilly and I have been living with her and Aunt Jet, I know that's not normal for her.

"Is something wrong, Aunt Franny?" Gilly asks, words muffled a bit by the cake she's still chewing.

"Well, that's what I'm trying to figure out, Gilly bean," she replies with a soft smile for my sister. Then those dark eyes land on me, and I can see and _feel_ the curiosity aimed in my direction. "Do either of you know what this is?"

She points to the centerpiece on the sideboard. It's a deceptively simple looking arrangement of candles with holly, ivy, and pinecones surrounding them. Potted poinsettias in full bloom stand on either side of them, offering splashes of color to the greenery that takes center stage. I can see the handful of narcissus flowers that Aunt Franny's been adding to the arrangement, something she'd said she would do today.

"It's the Winter Solstice centerpiece," Gilly says with a giggle. "Don't you remember putting it up yesterday with Sally?"

A hand in Sally's hair is Aunt Franny's first response, but she shakes her head. "No, Gilly bean, I didn't forget that. I've been in charge of this centerpiece ever since my mother handed it down to me when I wasn't much older than you are. But I don't ever remember putting _this_ in the centerpiece."

She turns to point to the spot between the two large beeswax candles. Nestled in among the leaves of holly and ivy is a small statue of the baby Jesus in a manger. I swallow thickly at the memories of how Daddy always had a nativity scene on the mantle in our home. Mommy never stopped him from putting it up, and always encouraged him to tell us the stories from his own childhood holiday traditions.

"Do either of you girls know where it came from?" Aunt Jet's voice is soft and filled with the same curiosity that Gilly's always is, and she rests her hand on my shoulder.

They clearly know it's from me. They're both looking at me, not Gilly. Taking a deep breath, I raise my eyes from the baby Jesus to meet Aunt Franny's gaze.

"I put it there, Aunt Franny," I say slowly, feeling the tears in my eyes. "It's from the nativity that Daddy always put out. Mommy said that I could have it to remember him…"

*****

_December 21, 1998_  


"Sally Maria Owens, you get your hungover butt down here this instant!"

Aunt Franny's voice pulls me from the memory of that first Winter Solstice in the Owens family home. Groaning softly, I throw back the covers and scrub at my eyes, but stay put for a few minutes before getting up and out of bed. Warm robe wrapped around me, I shuffle into my slippers and slowly make my way down the stairs to the foyer where my aunts and daughters stand in front of the sideboard. My god, it's like looking at a flashback of that first year when Gilly and I moved into this house. No, the aunts are a little greyer now, and my girls are older than we were, not to mention how much of Michael is in their sweet, curious faces, especially Antonia's. Kylie is far more like Gilly in looks, even if her personality takes after mine.

"Oh Sally, my poor girl," Aunt Jet says and offers me a large mug. "You look absolutely awful. No matter. We'll get you feeling better. Just drink this."

"There you are, young lady." Aunt Franny's disciplinarian tone is oddly soothing as, once again, her hand points to the centerpiece that I've grown up with for nearly thirty years now. "Care to explain what this is?"

I sip slowly at the tea, grateful for the taste and scent of peppermint and ginger. Despite my lingering headache, I can clearly remember watching Aunt Franny and the girls in the gardens, collecting the holly, ivy, and pinecones for this year's centerpiece. And I can't deny the thrill of satisfaction that they're using the beeswax candles I made for my shop this year.

But I know that isn't what she's asking me.

"It looks like a nativity scene has been nestled all snugly between the candles."

She narrows her eyes, but I can see the glint of amusement lurking in the background. "Well, I can see that, miss smarty pants, just as I can see that it's the set your father always used. What I want to know is _why_ it's here and _where_ is the baby?"

"Mommy always puts the nativity between the candles," Kylie says before I can answer. "It's a tradition in our house to hide the baby Jesus and search for it so to complete the centerpiece." She frowns slightly and turns to look at me. "You said that was the tradition from your childhood living with the aunts, didn't you, Mommy?"

I smile and reach over to cup her cheek with my free hand. God, I wish Gilly was here! "That's mostly true, Kylie. I changed the tradition a little bit when I married your dad."

"What was it before Daddy?"

Antonia adopts that head tilt of curiosity that Aunt Jet and Gilly have always had. It really is obvious to see how the generations have preserved certain family traits when we're all together like this. God, Gilly, where the hell are you?

"Well, when my mommy and daddy died, your aunt Gilly and I came to live with the aunts and--"

"We know this part, Mommy!" Antonia interrupts me, sounding so much like Gilly at that age, it's eerie!

I glare at her for interrupting, but continue as if she hadn't done it. "And our first Winter Solstice, the aunts taught us how to find the best holly ivy for the centerpiece. We added in the pinecones because Mama did that with us."

Franny sighs softly. "You know, Sally, your mother was the only one willing to gather the pinecones when we were little. I was mean and told her that she was the youngest and smallest, so it was her job to go into all the hidey holes to find the best ones."

"She even fought with a squirrel one year for a really big one," Aunt Jet says with a fond chuckle. "As well you remember, Franny!"

"Anyway," I reply, trying to get the conversation back on track. "When my parents died, I got their nativity set. Our first Winter Solstice here, I put the baby Jesus between the candles, because it made me think of my parents and all of our good holiday memories. The aunts were kind of baffled by it, especially Aunt Franny. But after I explained it, the tradition became more of a game of how I could sneak the baby Jesus into the centerpiece without her catching me. And then one year, it changed. I think I was twelve then, so I'd been here for about four years."

"It was the year you turned thirteen," Aunt Franny says with a knowing smile. "You were having some adjustment issues that year and questioned so many things."

"That's right! Anyway, so I'd snuck the baby Jesus into the centerpiece after waking up in the middle of the night on the night before Winter Solstice. When I got up that morning, he was gone. I was devastated that he was gone because he was a part of my childhood and my parents."

"I felt bad for her," Aunt Franny says, "and just slipped a note onto her plate with her breakfast that said she'd have to go on a treasure hunt to find him before the day was out so that he could be returned to his rightful place in the centerpiece."

"Did you actually find him, Mommy?"

"Oh yes, Antonia! It took me all day to do it, but I did eventually find him. Everyone else knew where he was, even Gilly, but no one would give me even the barest of hints of how to find him."

Aunt Jet giggles then. "Well…"

"Bridget Owens!" Aunt Franny's aghast tone has me in giggles. "Are you telling me that you cheated and told her where I hid it?"

"No, I didn't tell her that." Aunt Jet's eyes twinkle with amusement. "Well, not _outright_ , but I did help her along a little bit."

"She actually only gave me one clue, and even that was obscure," I say, chuckling when Aunt Franny huffs and pouts. "But it gave us a great family tradition to continue from that point on. So each year, we would take turns hiding the baby Jesus. When someone found him and put him in the centerpiece, someone else would take and hide it again. Whoever found it last by the time the sun rose on the morning after Winter Solstice got a prize."

"It was a good way to help you girls stay up to celebrate the longest night of the year."

"Especially in the years before you were legally old enough to participate in Midnight Margaritas."

Aunt Franny studies me for a moment, then steps closer to cup my face in her hands. "So why the whole scene out, baby Jesus included, this year? What's happened to make you change the traditions, my girl?"

I shrug and close my eyes with a sigh. "Michael liked the idea of the scavenger hunt, but he always wanted the whole thing out. So our tradition was just hiding the baby Jesus but putting the rest into the centerpiece. The game was to slip the baby Jesus in before the other one managed to find it."

"That's what Daddy always did with us," Kylie says. "He always had me help him hide it so that you'd have to really search for it."

"That's right, Kylie." I pause then and step away from Aunt Franny's touch to stare at my daughter. "Wait. Did _you_ put it out?"

"I just thought that the holidays might not hurt as much if I put the whole thing out for you. I know how much you miss Daddy, even if you and Gary are together now."

I move to pull my older daughter into a tight one-armed hug and kiss her temple. "Thank you, sweetheart. That was really nice of you."

"You're welcome, Mommy. I got up after all four of you went to bed last night and got it set up."

"I helped!"

Pulling Antonia into the hug, I press a noisy kiss to her cheek. "Thank you for helping your sister. You're both such good girls to do that." I lean back to glance at the aunts and smirk. "But I think it's time we combine the two traditions a little bit."

"So the scavenger hunt is back on?" The hope in Aunt Franny's voice is palpable and I realize just how much I've missed them in my life.

"Hell yes, it is! So let's all go get our breakfast ready and let the games begin. It's going to be a long night, so you girls have the option of napping during the day to stay up all night with us." The girls' cries of delight derails me only slightly. "Now, the only rules to this game are that you can't use magic to hide or find the baby Jesus and you can't share where you hid it. If you get caught taking or replacing the baby Jesus, you can't play for one round. And whoever finds and replaces the baby Jesus last before sunrise tomorrow morning gets a special present. Everybody clear on the rules?"

"Does that mean I get to play, too?"

Just the sound of her voice from behind the aunts is enough to have me pushing past the rest of my family to wrap my arms around her. "Gilly! You're here!"

She laughs and hugs me back. "Like I could stay away when my whole family is here, Sal. You know better than that."

We're pulled apart first by the aunts, then by the girls, all happy to see Gilly. She reaches out at one point and pulls me into the huge family hug. The only person we're missing is currently driving all of his worldly belongings here, hopefully to arrive in time for Christmas. He'll be introduced to the tradition next year, after he's gotten used to living with a bunch of crazy, witchy Owens women.

Until then, there are a lot of Owens family traditions to be resurrected again.

"Somebody tell me we've got chocolate cake with gooey frosting for breakfast," Gilly says as her stomach growls. "I'm starving!"

Right on the tail of her words, we hear the oven timer dinging and Aunt Jet laughs. "That would be chocolate cupcakes. Come on, everybody, let's go frost and decorate them as we want."

"I'll make the chocolate milk," Gilly says as she and Aunt Jet usher the girls into the kitchen.

Aunt Franny once again cups my face in her hands and smiles warmly. "It's good to see you so accepting of your gifts finally, my beautiful girl. You've always been a proper and true Owens woman, even when you tried to hide it."

"I'm sorry I was so stubborn."

She kisses my forehead, a sheen of tears in her eyes. "We all have our flaws. Now, let's go have that breakfast. We're about eighteen hours behind on our game, but I know I'm going to stump you this year."

That brings a laugh from deep in my gut. "Not a chance, old woman! I have children who are very curious. I know how to hide things that even _they_ can't find. You won't win."

"Challenge accepted."


End file.
